he reluctantly made Sean move so he could go clean up in the bathroom. When he returned, he crawled into bed and pulled Sean close with his head resting in the crook of his arm. “Do you have to be anywhere today?” Emery asked.
“Nope. Called in sick. What about you?”
“Ditto. Then let’s take a nap before we fuck each other’s brains out again.”
“What about your friends?”
Emery yawned. “What about them?”
“Didn’t you say they had your stuff?”
“They’ll still have it later.” He snugged Sean more tightly to his side. “Way later.”
* * * *
Erik looked around before sinking down into the water, shifting, and emerging to walk up to the mangrove trees. Denby followed him. They both grabbed their shorts from where they’d left their clothes and quickly pulled them on. Erik grabbed Emery’s clothes, too, before they hurried back to the parking lot.
Erik punched his code into the keyless entry pad and the Cherokee’s locks clicked open.
“What are we going to do?” Denby asked for the gazillionth time.
Erik slammed his fist down on the roof of his SUV. “I don’t fucking know! I didn’t know all the other times you fucking asked me, and I don’t fucking know now! Get the fuck in!” How had he missed how whiny Denby was before?
They took off toward the marina. The boat they’d followed was there, being hauled out of the water by the forklift to go into dry storage, but no sign of Emery and the guy. When Erik tried to find out who owned the boat, the woman in the office looked at him suspiciously.
“He’s the friend of a friend,” Erik explained. “But our friend went with him, and forgot his cell phone, wallet, and keys in my car. I’d like to get them back to him.”
She pushed a piece of paper and a pen across the counter to him.
“Leave me your name and number and I’ll pass it on to him. I can’t give out customer information.”
Stewing, Erik wrote it down and handed it back. “Thank you.”
Denby hammered him with useless questions again when they got back to the parking lot. Erik whirled around on him. “Shut the fuck up. It’s all your fault anyway. Didn’t you see the fucking boat? He was trying to save your goddamned ass!”
“I thought I had time to make it across. I was going to use it to slow you two down.”
“Get in the fucking car so I can take you home.”
Erik wanted to smack the shit out of Denby and knew he couldn’t. That would get him in trouble with the pod. Erik understood Emery didn’t feel the same way about him that he felt about Emery, which was why he’d never said anything to him before. But the sight of the man he loved in the arms of another man—a human man—hurt and unable to help him, had nearly ripped Erik to pieces.
I’ve got to tell him. Let the chips fall where they may and be done with it. Stop torturing himself over Emery and tell him he wanted to be more than occasional fuck buddies with him. And if Emery didn’t want him back…
He’d deal with that when it happened.
But he wouldn’t lose the man he loved to a fucking human.
Chapter Four
Sean awoke from his short nap with a pleasant ache in his ass and his head still nestled in the crook of Emery’s arm.
Wow .
He looked up at the ceiling.
Wow .
This felt unreal. Something inside him hoped Emery hadn’t been kidding when he talked like he wanted to see where this would go. That it wouldn’t be some one-time fling.
Emery rolled over onto his side to face him. Those intense eyes, the gold and blue flecks even more prominent now, stared into his.
Without a word, he took Sean’s chin in his hand and tipped his face. Then Emery’s lips closed on his and Sean softly moaned. He tasted warm and rich, like a sweet lager. When Emery’s tongue pressed for entrance, Sean’s lips willingly parted before him.
Trapped between their bodies, Sean’s cock throbbed. He couldn’t help rocking his hips, the gentle friction against Emery’s body stirring his